Excited About Spain!

My name is Anika Chapman and soon I will leave my home in the mountain town of Basalt, Colorado to study abroad with AFS Intercultural Programs for 9 months in Spain. I am so excited about learning Spanish, living with a host family, and gaining insight into Spanish culture. I'm also excited to share some American culture with my new family and friends in Spain.

I have wanted to see the world since as long as I can remember! A few years ago, I travelled to Ireland with my grandmother. I loved the experience of immersing myself in a new and different culture! I was totally hooked on travel.

I want to come home after my year in Spain speaking Spanish fluently, so that I can teach others about the language, country and life I experienced there. I know that gaining a second language will be invaluable to me academically and professionally one day. I also want to volunteer with English In Action, an organization in my community that matches volunteer tutors with immigrants who want to learn English.

The cost of the program is something that I am working to cover everyday. My goal is to raise $4000 for my study abroad program. I am selling prints of my original art on this blog as part of my fundraising efforts. I also plan to earn $1000 with part-time babysitting jobs. All the money I make is going straight to my savings account for my trip!

I have joined the Sponsor an AFSer program provided by the study abroad organization (AFS), which is an online fundraising tool they provide to allow potential sponsors to make easy, secure donations to my AFS program fee. No amount is too small – every dollar I raise through fundraising brings me closer to my goals.

Thank you so much for reading this, and I would greatly appreciate it if you could forward this message to anyone else who you think might be interested in sponsoring my AFS experience. Keep checking back here to read more about my adventures once I actually get to Spain! I will be posting photos and blogging about my year abroad!

To sponsor my AFS program, please click the Donate Now button to make a non tax-deductible contribution directly to my AFS program account.

Sending out my fundraising card

I am so excited to tell you about this really cool card I made with my friend Reina! First I drew the Spanish emblem as well as the country of Spain itself. We printed the paper out with just the drawing of the country and my painting on the back. Reina had the emblem made onto a plate which enabled us to be able to print it on a letterpress. A letterpress is a machine that was used for printing books before we could do it digitally. So first we printed the emblem onto the paper. Then, we did typesetting. Typesetting is setting up the letters before printing them on paper. We chose all the letters and laid them out in a chase. A chase is like a metal frame that helps you keep the words straight and keep the letters in place. We placed wood blocks inside the chase so that when we picked it up, all the words would stay in. We them brought it over to the letterpress and printed "Anika's Year In Spain" and "September 2016 - June 2017".  After we made the outside of the card and printed the inside, I stitched them together using a 3 hole pamphlet stitch. I hope you enjoyed getting my card as much as I enjoyed making it!